Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Target Aims At Music Subscriptions - Forbes.com

Target Aims At Music Subscriptions - Forbes.com: "Executives at major music labels who have seen Target's presentation say the offering, which will be powered by Seattle-based Loudeye (nasdaq: LOUD - news - people ), will offer both a 'tethered' service, which allows customers to use the service only on their PCs, as well as a 'portable' service, which allows users to move the tracks to compatible music players--which, notably, does not include the most popular digital music player, Apple's iPod. The portable service, sources say, will likely be priced somewhere between the $6.99 charged by Yahoo! for Yahoo! Music Unlimited and the $14.95 charged by RealNetworks and others for their portable services."

According to the story, Target thinks there niche in the market is appealing to mothers who purchase music for their families. I applaud the fact that Target's marketing muscle will help educate consumers on the benefits of subscription music service, but ultimately I don't Target is going to make much of an impact (at least for the first few years). Walmart is having the same problem...

1 comment:

M.E. said...

There is something to be said for marketing to the "mothers who control their families' budget", however, I would agree that Target will have a hard time gaining traction with this offering. Best Buy has been pushing Rhapsody and Napster subscription services for over two years with moderate success (for Best Buy).

In any case, I don't recall ever buying music at Target or associating their brand with music..